ZOOPHYTES. 271 



Another frequent species, and one which adorns 

 the rocks and reefs about our southern shores, and 

 makes them like a blooming garden, is the lovely 

 tinted Purple Sea Anemone (Actinia crassicornis}. 

 Not that it always exhibits the colour which gives 

 it its familiar name, for it varies much in hue. In 

 one of its varieties it is of brilliant scarlet, studded 

 with spots of a paler colour. Now we see it revel- 

 ling in the subdued sunshine, enjoying its warmth, 

 yet screening itself from its glare in the crevice of 

 the rock or under the shelter of some large stone, 

 and we pause to admire its delicate cream tint or 

 its sulphur-coloured beauty. A little farther on, and 

 our sea anemone displays itself in greenish hue, 

 with orange stripes ; or marbled with red and white, 

 would lead the inexperienced naturalist to believe 

 that he has found some other species. The tenta- 

 cula are very often, indeed almost always, marked 

 with white and red rings ; but sometimes, when 

 the body of this actinia is of a pale flesh or cream 

 colour, there are no rings on the tentacula, but 

 they are of the same hue as the body. The body 

 in this species is rough, with minute glandular ex- 

 crescences. 



To look at the sea anemones when they are 

 closed, or to put our finger on their cold slimy coats, 

 one would not be very ready to suggest the pro- 

 posal of making a meal of them, yet in tropical 

 countries they are much used as food, and a beau- 

 tiful species, with crimson tentacles, which is 

 abundant on the shores of the Mediterranean, is a 

 favourite dish of Italian epicures. Our common 

 Purple Sea Anemone (Actinia crassicornis) is said, 

 by the Abbe Dicquemare, to be preferable to any 

 other for the table. " Being boiled in sea-water," 



